President Barack Obama managed to drum up enough support among his fellow Democrats to clear a procedural hurdle for a vote on special trade powers, as the Senate voted 60-37 to end the debate on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA).

The White House wanted the TPA in order to negotiate a series of
trade pacts, most notably the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
with 11 Pacific Rim countries, excluding China.

“This is a very important day for our country,” said
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) adding that
the TPP would send the message to the world that “America is
back in the trade business,” and reassure Asian countries
concerned about China that the US would remain involved in the
Pacific.

Calling the TPP “another corporate-sponsored trade
agreement,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said that the trade
deal’s passage would force many US workers out of jobs.

BREAKING: Senate advances #TPP fast track.
Sen. @SherrodBrown calls it
"a day of celebration in the corporate suites in this country."

“It’s a great day for big-money interests, not a great day
for working families,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont),
adding that the TPP was opposed by “every union in this
country, by almost every environmental group, and many religious
groups.”

To secure the measure’s passage, Obama needed 60 votes. Last
month, the Senate voted 62-37 to approve the powers. However, the
proposal later foundered in the House of Representatives, when
the Democrats sank a companion measure called Trade Adjustment
Assistance (TAA). After some procedural maneuvering, the House
ended up passing a stand-alone TPA bill, sending it back to the
Senate for approval.

The president’s biggest headache has been Democratic lawmakers
opposed to the proposed free trade pacts, most notably House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Senator Elizabeth
Warren (D-Massachusetts). Hillary Clinton, the party’s
front-runner for the presidential nomination in 2016, also
came out against the TPP and other free trade
deals recently.

Republican support for the pacts, which Obama has counted on,
wavered as well. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), one of the
contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, publicly
announced he would oppose the TPA.

In an op-ed at the conservative website Breitbart
News, Cruz cited WikiLeaks revelations about one of the pacts –
the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) – and its provisions
concerning immigration. He also blasted the Export-Import Bank as
a “classic example of corporate welfare… cronyism at its
worst” and pledged to vote against TPA unless it was allowed
to expire.

The Ex-Im Bank, however, is a key issue for some of the Democrats
Obama needs to win over, such as Sens. Maria Cantwell (D
-Washington) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-North Dakota).

Getting Congress to grant him fast-track powers has been a
roller-coaster ride for Obama. After losing the first procedural vote on May 12, the measure ended
up passing the Senate on May 23. The House
approved fast-track powers on June 12, but struck
down the companion measure without which the proposal could not
move forward – only to approve a standalone fast-track bill on June 18.

Many groups are opposed to the proposed free-trade pacts the
White House has been negotiating in secrecy. Environmentalists
object to the leaked language limiting US ability to legislate
against climate change. Labor unions are concerned the pacts
would result in more American jobs lost to overseas competition,
as has happened with previous free-trade deals. While the
conservatives favor the free trade aspects of the pacts, they
have raised concerns over immigration and certain provisions that
could supersede US sovereignty.